Chapter55
“Adrian!” Vanessa shrieked from the back of the pale vehicle, cranking down the window.
Evelyn sat right beside her, her posture rigid as a sentinel.
Adrian heard her.
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He saw her. But he didn’t spare so much as a flicker of attention, his gaze cold and sharp, edged with the raw intensity of a cornered alpha-feral, unyielding.
“Vanessa’s here, calling for you. Didn’t you hear?”
I snapped, my voice cutting through the tension in the car.
Adrian didn’t so much as blink.
I watched through the rear window as Vanessa stared after us, screaming for him to stop.
She threw open the door and stumbled after the vehicle, her phone pressed to her ear as she dialed frantically.
By the time we reached the pack gates, she was shrieking hysterically at our retreating form, her posture wild enough to make any bystander think she’d lost her grip on her sanity.
Evelyn stayed in the vehicle, neither urging the driver forward nor climbing out to chase Vanessa.
She sat there, as still and unrippled as a frozen pond, her face blank to the distant wails.
The driver-some low-ranking wolf from the Blackwood guard,glanced in the rearview mirror, confusion
evident.
Why had Evelyn agreed to bring Vanessa here today?
Adrian’s vehicle was long gone by the time Vanessa collapsed at the roadside, her gaze fixed on the
vanishing speck of our trail, her eyes blazing with a jealous fury that bordered on madness.
By the trees lining the path, a nondescript vehicle peeled out, shadowing our trail. I didn’t recognize it, but a prickle of awareness told me it wasn’t Blackwood.
Three minutes later, Gideon’s phone pinging.
A voice message:
“Vivian’s been taken by her mate. I’m following. Should I intervene?”
“Keep following.”
On the open trail, I stared at the speedometer-we were pushing past the limits of even a wolf’s tolerance, the vehicle vibrating with the strain.
I gripped the edge of my seat, forcing my voice steady. “Can you slow down? This isn’t necessary.”
“Scared?”
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Adrian’s voice was flat, his eyes locked on the path ahead.
“I thought you didn’t fear anything.”
I bit back a curse at his entire lineage.
Now wasn’t the time for defiance.
I let out a nervous laugh, feigning vulnerability.
“I’ve only got one life. Even for a wolf, that’s worth holding onto. So is yours.”
“Life’s long,” I added, tossing out a half-hearted platitude.
“Wolves endure worse.”
Adrian swerved sharply, veering off the main trail onto a narrow, overgrown path-uncharted territory, not marked on any pack map.
My heart lurched, but I forced myself to steady.
Glancing out the window, I saw the trees close in, their branches clawing at the sky as twilight seeped in, painting the world in dim grays.
The air felt charged,into a place where only primal rules held sway.
“Where are we going?”
I asked, keeping my tone cautious.
“Nowhere,” he said.
I fell silent.
Five minutes passed, the only sound the crunch of underbrush beneath us, before I tried again. “Look, we’re not enemies. You made a mistake-one most alphas make, chasing fleeting distractions. I’m just a she-wolf who’s had enough. We had something once, but the bond’s frayed. It’s done. No blame, no fight. Just… done.”
Adrian glanced at me, his gaze sharp.
“You’re really that afraid of dying?”
My fingers tightened on the seat.
What did that mean?
Was he enraged because I’d insisted on breaking the bond?
Because I’d threatened to drag his tryst with Vanessa into pack court, exposing his weakness?
My mind raced for a lifeline.
Not the enforcers-Gideon, maybe.
But why would he keep saving me?
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< Chapter55
“Who are you thinking about?”
Adrian snapped.
He could sense my distraction, the way my thoughts had drifted.
I shot him a look.
“I’m wondering when you’ll stop this. At this rate, we’ll run out of energy soon. Then what?”
Adrian didn’t answer.
I slipped a hand into my bag.
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The phone he’d snatched was a new one-my old device, with the recordings and contacts, was hidden in my
pocket.
Every five minutes, I typed out a garbled message to Cassie, sending my coordinates.
Last time I’d tried to text for help, I’d fumbled “jwlp” instead of “help.”
This time, I hoped she’d read between the lines: Orchard edge. Taken by Adrian. Help.
Cassie would understand.
She’d come, quietly, without alerting the pack-knowing Adrian might just want space, but not risking it.
Adrian’s vehicle left the orchard behind, winding through open lands for another hour, passing a small,
scattered pack territory, then nothing but wild, untamed forest.
The further we went, the more isolated it felt-no scents of other wolves, no markers of territory.
Three hours in, well past moonrise, I was banking on our energy giving out.
Finally, the vehicle sputtered to a halt at the foot of a mountain, miles from any pack lands, its reserves
drained.
Crickets chirped, frogs croaked, and in the distance, the moon peeked over the peaks, casting a silver glow.
Is he really going to kill me?
“It’s just us now,” Adrian said, rolling down the window and striking a match.
The flame flickered, illuminating his face-sharp, handsome, but shadowed with something dark.
He lit a cigarette, and in the orange glow, he looked both striking and dangerous, like an alpha who’d shed the
last of his restraint.
He exhaled smoke, loosening the collar of his shirt with one hand, raking a hand through his dark hair.
But I remembered the younger wolf he’d been, blushing when our hands brushed, earnest and eager.
That Adrian was gone, buried under years of alpha pride and mistakes.
“So, what now?”
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Adrian blew out a smoke ring, his gaze fixed on me.
In the moonlight, my dress-simple, in a soft cream-hugged my form, and I could feel his eyes tracing the
lines, as if memorizing them.
Once, that look would have made me warm, eager. Now, it just felt like a claim-possessive, not loving.
He leaned closer, the smoke from his breath brushing my cheek.
“I think the reason you’re so cold is because we never had a pup.”
་ ་་་ ་་་་ ་་་ ་་་ ་ད་་་་་ པ ་ ་ས་་ད་ད་་「་ ་ས་་
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